


last night i was drowning

by robin_hoods



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Frog Prince, Animal Transformation, Creepy Fluff, Curses, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 14:59:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/927866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_hoods/pseuds/robin_hoods
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her ideal image of a prince is one from the books, beautiful and sweet and kind; this one is ugly and wet and slimy, with more limbs than her own four.</p>
            </blockquote>





	last night i was drowning

It was Sansa's most prized possession, and she had dropped it down into the pond. It had been a gift, lovely and old, once belonging to her mother, and now all she could do was watch it sink to the bottom of the pond, down to where she would never be able to retrieve it.

A droplet landed on the water surface, then another, but her tears were not like rain, and they would not wash her sorrows away. “Why those sad eyes, princess?” a voice asked, out of nowhere. She jolted, and looked around. “Down here, princess,” the voice said, and she peered into the pond.

A squid – or was it a kraken – swam around, its arms floating around its body. “I-- I was sad because I dropped my necklace into the pond. And now I'll never be able to get it back.” Just thinking about it sent Sansa to cry a new bout of tears, and a tentacle raised out of the water to wipe at her cheek.

“Don't cry, princess. Whatever it is you are looking for, I will find it for you. This is my home, after all.”

“Really?” she asked, her tears drying.

“Yes,” he said, “but you have to promise me something, when I do this for you.”

“What is it?” Sansa asked, curiousity overtaking her.

“When I come back, you'll take me to your castle, and look after me like you would after a lord husband. So you shall be my lady wife.”

Sansa froze at the side of the pond. Would that truly be worth it? She glanced back at the castle, far in the distance. “I- I promise,” she said, and if the kraken had had a mouth, she thought he might have smiled at her.

He swam off into the deep, and she saw how one of his tentacles wrapped around her necklace, a trout dangling from the chain, and he made his way back to her. “There you go,” he said, holding out her gift.

It dripped when she took it from him, and she cradled it to her chest. “Well?” he asked.

“I- thank you,” she said, softly, taking a step back from the pond. “I need to go,” she said, “my parents must be worried.” She turned and ran back along the path to the castle.

“What about your promise?” she heard his voice calling after her – but he was only a kraken, a squid, and why should she marry something like that? Not when she had already been promised.

Her afternoon tears were quickly forgotten, especially when Arya started teasing her about her headpiece again during supper. Sansa was about to insolently reply to her when Maester Luwin rushed inside the hall, and bowed forward to whisper something in her Father's ear. He nodded carefully, rose, and said, “Sansa, come with me, please.”

She followed him, confused as to what it was about, but it started to dawn on her when she saw the puddles of water on the floor. The kraken was waiting for her, a chair hastily retrieved for him by a servant. “You promised something to me, princess,” he said.

“Is this true, Sansa?” her father asked her, and slowly, she nodded.

“You must remember,” he said, “no matter who you make your promises to, you must keep them.”

She looked upon the kraken, and sighed. Her father was right, it would not be honourable to lie. “I will,” she said. “I promised, so I will. Father, meet... meet my lord husband.”

“Pleasure,” the kraken said.

Ned nodded shortly. “Take me to your chambers,” the kraken said when he had gone, and she carried him up the stairs, until she had finally reached her own room, where she put him down on the floor.

“You should put me in your bed,” the kraken said. “That's how you would treat your lord husband, is it not?”

With repulsion, she lifted him up again, all his eight arms flailing around her body, slimy and wet on her cheeks and arms.

“Thank you,” the kraken said when she'd put him down, and at least he was polite enough, she thought. She could barely stand to look at him right now, but if she closed her eyes and listened to his voice, she could forget for a moment. “Why don't you lie down next to me?” the kraken asked. “You are my wife, after all.”

She did, and shuddered. She felt a tentacle creep upon her shoulder. but his arms did not stretch further, and slowly, she fell asleep.

When she woke come morning, she slipped out of her chambers; the kraken lied limply on the bed, dripping onto the floor.

“I heard you got married,” Arya whispered into her ear while she broke her fast that morning. Sansa pursed her lips. “What's he like?” she wanted to know.

“Nothing,” Sansa said, and paused. “He's...”

“Do I need to stab him, with Needle?” her sister asked, in all seriousness.

“No! I- that wouldn't be-”

“Proper, would it?” Arya asked, and sighed. Sansa shook her head, silently.

A maid hurried over to them, and whispered in Sansa's ear, “M'lady, the... your... husband, he requested your presence.”

She made her way up to her chambers, where she found the kraken lounging on her furs. “I hearrd you wanted to see me,” she said, trying not to be upset.

“Oh, yes,” the kraken replied, “most certainly. There was one more thing I would like to request of you, lady wife.”

“I am not your lady wife,” Sansa snapped, and with all the strength she could muster, lifted his body off the bed and threw him at the wall.

He made no sound as he fell, no whisper or breath of air leaving his body as he slumped down. Was he dead, she wondered. His body did not move, his tentacles did not twitch. Tentatively, she reached out a hand.

His skin was cool to the touch, as she he had thought it would be. She turned him over, on his- what looked to be his back. His eyes were open., looked at her, unseeing.

To her surprise, he was not dead, as he whispered, “Just one thing.” His voice was raspy, and she leaned closer to hear him.  
  
“What is it that you wanted?”

“A kiss,” he whispered in her ear.

She recoiled, almost tripping over the hem of her dress. He was a kraken, he had no lips to speak of. What did he expect her to do?

“You promised,” he said, but instead of sounding malicious, it was nearly pitiful.  
  
“I- I can't.” She hesitated. “Wherever would I kiss you?”

“On my lips,” he said, and she could see, between the tentacles, where he meant. It was where his voice was coming from.

“Only once?” she asked.  
  
“And if you want to, afterwards,” he said, his voice so soft she had to strain her ears to hear him

She crawled closer, and he rested a tentacle on her arm. She brushed some of his arms aside, bowing her head. “Just one,” she whispered, a promise to herself.

It was not the first kiss she had always wanted to have, the kiss she had expected to receive, from a beautiful prince with whom she would once be Queen. The kraken had no lips, and from his breath she could smell rotting fish, and salt, and something else she could not quite place. She breathed in deeply, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips to what she supposed would be his mouth.

The tentacle on her arm was warm, no longer wet. When she realised, at last, that there were fingers wrapped around her wrist. she looked up.

“It's all right, Sansa,” the young man resting against the wall said. “You kept your promise.”

“W-who are you,” she whispered. He looked tired and worn, though his face was not unkind. “What happened to-?”

“I had eight arms,” he said, “but I only have these two left now. My name is Theon. I am a prince from the Iron Isles.”

“A prince?” she asked. She had never heard of the Iron Isles before. She knew of the lands beyond the North, the other Kingdoms, the Riverlands where her mother came from, the Dornishmen in the South. but she had never heard of these Iron Isles.

“Long ago,” Theon said, “I was cursed. I... had insulted a lady. In turn, she turned me into a squid. Eventually, a fisherman caught me and brought me here.” 

“But how did you turn back?”

“You kissed me of your own volition,” he said. “So you freed me of the curse, and returned me to my rightful body.”

“Good,” she whispered, and slowly helped him to his feet. She wondered how she should explain to her father why there was a naked young man in her bedchamber, but when he looked down and smiled at her, she did not recall why it mattered at all.

“Would you now lie with me as you would with your lord husband?” he asked, and she smiled.

“It would be my pleasure, my lord,” she said, and kissed him just so.

**Author's Note:**

> As I agreed with leapylion, Theon will always be a sassy little shit, even if he was cursed to be a kraken forever.
> 
> I started writing this in chat last night and then it just... grew. As these things tend to happen.


End file.
